First flight to St Helena

JAMESTOWN, UK, 16 October 2017: The first scheduled commercial flight landed at St. Helena Saturday, opening the small British island in the South Atlantic to the world after centuries of isolation.

Around 100 islanders came out to the airport to watch the historic landing of the Embraer 190 jet, which came from Johannesburg.

On the tarmac, some 60 incoming passengers were welcomed by the island’s smiling governor, Lisa Phillips. Read more

Berliners vote for Tegel

BERLIN, 26 September 2017: Berliners have voted to keep open the Cold War-era city airport Tegel, threatening political turbulence in the German capital and more trouble for Chancellor Angela Merkel after a bruising election victory.

Tegel or TXL has long been marked for closure, but an embarrassing years-long delay in opening its larger replacement airport BER led to a popular push to keep operating it after all as the capital’s second airport.

In a referendum held on the same day as the general election, some 56.1% of voters supported the drive to keep Tegel open, the final results showed late Sunday. Read more

Mischief maker swaps bag tags

SINGAPORE, 22 September 2017: A Singaporean baggage handler has been charged with “mischief” for allegedly swapping tags on hundreds of suitcases at the city-state’s airport, causing them to end up at the wrong destination.

Tay Boon Keh, 63, could be jailed if found guilty of having swapped the tags on 286 bags at Changi Airport, one of the world’s busiest hubs and often voted the world’s best airport.

Tay, who appeared in court Tuesday, is facing 286 counts of mischief. Read more

SpiceJet stuck in the mud

MUMBAI, 21 September 2017: Dozens of flights were diverted from Mumbai after a SpiceJet plane overshot the runway and became stuck in the mud as heavy rain lashed India’s financial capital and caused travel chaos Wednesday.

Schools and colleges also closed for the day as a precaution after severe monsoon rain late Tuesday and overnight led to fears of widespread flooding.

The storms came three weeks after ten people were killed when torrential rain deluged Mumbai, flooding homes and railway lines and shutting down the city for two days. Read more

Blackout hits Panama airport

PANAMA CITY, 20 September 2017: A blackout at Panama’s main international airport — a major hub for Latin America — caused more than 200 flights to be cancelled and many others delayed on Monday, airport officials said.

A malfunction in a circuit panel distributing power internally to the facility was to blame, according to the airport authority, which set up a “crisis room” to handle the disruption.

Thousands of frustrated passengers faced lines and clogged halls as harried airport staff struggled before blanked-out check-in screens. Read more

Changi offers Alipay option

SINGAPORE, 14 September 2017: Alipay and Changi Airport Group have signed a five-year partnership to roll out the Alipay mobile payment option in Changi Airport.

A joint marketing agreement was also inked, for both parties to offer customised and targeted shopping and dining offers to Chinese passengers using Alipay.

Alipay, operated by Ant Financial Services Group, is the world’s leading online and mobile payment platform with over 520 million active users. Read more

Changi’s Terminal 4 opens 31 Oct

SINGAPORE, 8 September 2017: Changi Airport Group confirmed its brand new Terminal 4 will open for business 31 October.

Major trials, checks and reviews are almost complete enabling the group to confirm an official opening day to both airline customers and passengers.

Nine airlines assigned to T4 have been given moving schedules in advance of the opening day. The moves will be staggered over one week, starting on the official opening day and should be completed by 7 November. Read more

Hat Yai airport outlines expansion

BANGKOK, 30 August Hat Yai Airport celebrated 29 years of service 26 August outlining a raft of improvements due to be completed  during it upcoming 30^th anniversary year.

The main challenge is to deal with terminal congestion as the airport will next year exceed its 2.5 million passenger ceiling by more than 1 million.

Hat Yai airport transferred to Airports of Thailand from the Department of Commercial Aviation in 1988. Read more

Bangkok hosts aviation summit

BANGKOK, 24 August 2017: The 2^nd annual Civil Aviation Southeast Asia Summit (CASEA 2017), will convene 27 to  28th September in Bangkok, Thailand.

CASEA positions itself as a must-attend forum for the Southeast Asia’s civil aviation community.

The event will be hosted at Best Western Premier Amaranth Suvarnabhumi Airport. Read more

A new aviation tax in pipeline

KUALA LUMPUR, 17 August 2017: Following on from a MYR10 tourist tax that comes into effect 1 September, Malaysia is processing a new tax on departing airline travellers.

There are plans to introduce a MYR1 (US$0.23) levy for all passengers departing from Malaysian airports as early as 2018.

ChannelNews Asia said Malaysia aviation regulator  announced details of the new 15 August. Read more

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